This invention relates to the safety of automotive passengers and particularly to worn devices for passengers or restraints in the event of a crash or other emergency. Parents of small children in particular have difficulty in putting the presently known harnesses on children, some of which harnesses require connection of numerous buckles and other fastening devices. Most of the restraints for small children do not allow the child to lie down, but require the child to remain in a sitting position. This is extremely tiring on a child, particularly on long trips and at the presently enforced national speed limit of 55 miles per hour which lengthens trips interminably, causing much wear and tear on the nerves of both parent and child.
One of the earliest known vest-type safety harnesses is Cagle U.S. Pat. No. 1,616,349 in which the wearer is positioned in a bib-type harness having six points of connection with the seat. The wearer is held in an upright position and the connection points or fastening devices 2 and 9 constitute danger points to the wearer.
Nunn, et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,758,769 teaches a restraining device which allows a child to stand or perhaps sit. This device has a flexible rod 20 and a pair of arm holder loops 14 which are relatively easy for a child to slip out of. Upon impact of the vehicle, the child will be thrown around the passenger compartment of the car and will be no safer than if he wore no restraining apparatus at all.
Rose et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,864 teaches a complex multi-belt device which is slideable up and down to a fixed restraining strap S which strap is connected to the seat back. This device requires the installation of the special strap S and also has the difficulty of being extremely complex, requiring many buckles which render the device difficult to put on and take off. The device also has a number of adjusting features which increase its complexity. Despite the claims for mobility of a wearer of the Rose, et al device, the child is actually held in one place and his mobility is greatly restricted, much more so than in the device of the present invention.
Vaughn et al U.S. Pat No. 3,827,716, teaches a safety vest fastened to the seat back, much in the style of Cagle, which likewise holds the wearer in an upright position.
Muller et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,324, teaches a seat vest jacket wich is the closest known prior art to the present invention. Muller, however, teaches a jacket which will not allow the wearer to lie down.
Other patents which may be of interest to the reader are:
Vaccari et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,649,236; Boles 2,877,833; Card, 3,275,373; Dillender 3,380,776; Benitez, Jr. et al 3,499,681; and Roberts et al 3,954,280. Some previously known auto restraint harness arrangements for children have the major disadvantage of squeezing the child's body in either the thoracic or pelvic area upon impact of the automobile. The invented vest apparatus covers the child's upper torso, widely distributing impact forces across the torso of the wearer.